The present invention relates to a ZIF (zero insertion force) connector and, in particular, to a ZIF connector which is capable of operating with a small operation force even in case of a multiconductor connector.
Various types of ZIF connectors have been proposed for reducing operation forces required upon attachment and detachment of the connectors even in case of multiconductor connectors. However, in the conventional ZIF connector of any type, a resistance force required for deformation of contacts upon connection to contacts of a counterpart connector is not sufficiently small. Hence, the conventional ZIF connector is poor in operating property and complicate in structure. Further, in the conventional ZIF connector, the number of parts is large, the assembling processes are complicate and thus the production cost is high.
In the conventional ZIF connector, contacts are provided as separate members, so that reduction in diameter of each contact has its own limit. For this reason, in the conventional ZIF connector, there has been the limit in view of the density of the contacts.